


eyes unclouded

by PearlHavoc



Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: A mix of both canons, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Princess Mononoke Fusion, Anna appears briefly here, Elsa is a stoic Ashitaka, F/F, Honeymaren is a feral San, I saw that fanart months ago and have been thinking about this ever since, Less nuanced than the actual movie I'm afraid, Princess Mononoke AU, So do Agnarr and Yelena, There is violence in this but I don't consider it THAT graphic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:07:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27482443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PearlHavoc/pseuds/PearlHavoc
Summary: Elsa, after defeating the demon that was threatening her village, is left cursed. With no other options she is banished from her village and told to journey north to find the source of the curse and break it, or die trying.The North is a land on the verge of war, torn apart by factions and factors both human and spirit. Elsa must find the truth in the midst of a lowly prince vying for the throne, an envoy neither human nor spirit, and ghosts from a past that is not hers alone.
Relationships: Elsa/Honeymaren (Disney)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have been thinking about writing this since I saw that Elsamaren fanart of Princess Mononoke. In the meantime, I have moved and gotten a new job and now I finally started to write it.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elsa is left cursed after her encounter with a demon

Something felt different in the air that morning. There wasn’t anything particular that she could place a name to but she felt as if there was something off in the forest. Kai, high above the village in the watchtower, sees something and this only reinforces her unease. Elsa takes his signal without hesitation and starts to head to the watchtower. She takes Nokk and her weapons and speeds off. 

Arendelle was a small coastal village well hidden and well protected from outsiders. Her people had fled their homelands several generations ago and hid among the craggy shores. The shores were inhospitable for ships larger than dinghies, and the dense woods that surrounded them kept them hidden from any larger forces that might seek to harm them.

“Elsa!” She hears her sister call out from just before the treeline. She turns her eye line to see Anna and some of her friends exiting the woods. 

“Anna, Yelena’s calling everyone back to the village you have to hurry,” she and Nokk ride up closer to the group. 

“Do we know what’s wrong?” Anna asks urgently, fiddling with her braids. 

“Kai spotted something in the woods, I headed to see what’s wrong.” 

“We were foraging in the forest, the birds are all gone,” one of the other girls says, her worry making her words bleed together. 

“-the animals too!” The other girl tacks on, having not contributed earlier. 

“Stay away from the forest and get back to the village as soon as you can,” Elsa says as she points Nokk firmly towards the watchtower. “All of you stay safe.”

“Be careful Elsa!” Anna calls out after her as she rides off. Her people had raised reindeer ever since they had fled their homelands. Nokk was a strange all-white reindeer that had been born when Elsa was a young teenager. The stark whiteness of his fur destroyed any possibility of camouflage except in the dead of winter. She had taken the poor creature in after it’s mother had rejected it, they had been inseparable ever since.

Nokk reaches the watchtower in no time at all, his stark coloring standing proudly against the thin wooden structure. She had been told that the wooden tower had been one of the first permanent structures built in Arendelle, after fleeing their homelands, no one had wanted to be left vulnerable. It was nestled just over the fjord at the very edge of the treeline. It could see for miles but from miles away it would be hard to distinguish it from the rest of the trees. 

Elsa scales the tower quickly, keeping her eyes trained on the treeline. None of the animals had returned but there had been no sight of what had scared them so. Then her eyes catch the slightest bit of movement deep in the woods. 

“Kai, what is it?” She asks as she reaches the platform. 

Both of their eyes seem to catch the same sliver of movement deep in the forest. Elsa pulls an arrow from the quiver on her back. 

“Kai, did you see that too?” She notches an arrow and aims tentatively at the treeline. 

“I did, it isn’t human.” 

“Yelena’s called everyone back to the village,” they both lose sight of the creature for a long moment. Then they heard a sound like hundreds of branches falling to the ground at once. Elsa takes too many short quick breaths and is unnerved when she sees frost in each breath. The temperature around them drops suddenly, the dying leaves barely holding on with the onset of winter all crash to the ground with frost. Several trees follow suit and then they can finally see what plagues their village. A giant mass of sentient snow crashes through the short stone wall and enters the clearing. It roars and the mere sound sends snow everywhere. The trees around it freeze on contact and snap like twigs. It turns to acknowledge them with perfect frozen glass orbs. 

“It’s a demon!” Kai shouts just in time for the creature to start striding towards the tower at breakneck speeds. 

“Run Nokk! Run!” The reindeer is frozen in place, the snow making him almost blend into the scenery. Elsa lets her arrow loose at the base of the tower near the creature and he finally realizes to run. He bolts just in time to avoid the demon crashing into the watchtower, the bottom giving out easily to the creature and the rest of the tower splintering from the force of the chill. The tower is sent careening off the side of the cliff. 

Elsa pulls Kai from the tower before it crashes to the ground. They both land in the branches of one of the few trees not flattened and inexplicably frozen. Not missing a beat, Elsa whistles for Nokk as she untangles herself from the branches. “It’s heading for the village! I have to stop it!” 

“Please, Princess! Be careful! That thing is cursed, don’t let it touch you!” 

Elsa hears his words in their entirety as she and Nokk speed off. The Demon was fast but Nokk was faster. “Please, whatever you may be, spirit or demon, leave our village alone,” Elsa pleads as she shouts over the roar of the snow. They crash through frozen underbrush as the snow only intensifies. She was trying to lead it away from the village but it paid her no mind. They come to a clearing and the demon pauses as its form shifts, the snow covering its form writhing around, briefly exposing solid stone underneath. “An Earth Giant?” Elsa holds her breath as the frost collects on her lashes. The creature roars and the snow reforms its protective shield. Moving quicker than it had before the creature almost turns away from the village. Then it spots something more interesting. Elsa follows it’s eye line. 

“Anna!” She screams. Anna stood in front of her fallen friend, sword drawn facing down the demon that would be upon them in moments if she didn’t do anything. Elsa begs Nokk to speed up and notches an arrow. Time slows down as she gets a good shot at the creature’s glassy eyes. She lets the arrow fly. 

The demon lets out an ungodly scream as the point of the arrow hits its mark. Something like glass seems to shatter and snow desperately tries to cover the wound. The feathers of the arrow still sticking out of the covered wound.

“Run! Run!” Elsa yells, hoping that they could get away while the creature was temporarily licking its wounds. The girls manage to drag their friend back to her feet and start off in earnest before the demon attacks again. The snow, no longer just covering its body, forms hundreds of tiny arms. They claw upwards as the creature screams. Elsa notches another arrow. Nokk brings her around so that she can have a clean shot at its remaining eye. The snow falls even harder. 

Elsa sees the attack too late to do anything about it. Two of the arms that had been reaching for the sky wrap around each other and braid together to form a mass thicker than her head. It reaches out for her. Grabbing her own in a vague attempt to stop her fatal blow, Elsa feels the chill down to her bones, the blood in her veins no longer liquid but ice. 

She lets the arrow loose and watches in slow motion as the creature’s last eye shatters. She notches another arrow purely on instinct as the snow on her arm loses its grip. The chill in her bones doesn’t lessen any. The snow falling stops as the creature stops moving altogether. It stands still as its shield starts to melt away, only a few of its many snow arms still clawing towards the sky. 

Elsa can see the snow around her melting quickly, the icy path that the demon had wrought melting into wet grass, but she doesn’t feel any of it. She feels her adrenaline drain to a trickle, that being the last thing keeping her even a little warm. She doesn’t even feel herself fall off of Nokk. 

“Elsa!” Anna’s voice snaps her out of her frozen haze. A crowd having formed around her while she had tried in vain to defrost. 

“Someone get Yelena!” Elsa hears someone call as her ears slowly stop ringing. The temperature around them slowly returns to normal but Elsa’s doesn’t. 

“Are you alright?” 

“Anna, don’t touch this wound, it’s cursed,” Elsa grits out as she frantically tries to pull up the frozen grass to her wound. Anna takes her word and starts to help her pile dirt on the wound. Never touching it. 

“Everyone stay away from her, and keep away from the body!” Yelena yells as she reaches the scene, having been carried from the village. 

“What can I do?”

“Pour this over her wound child, slowly,” Anna takes the water gourd, hastily uncorking it, and brings it over to her sister. Elsa holds out her arm meekly. The water, warm but not boiling, hisses as it touches the wound. It’s then that they all can see the angry blue marks that snake up the eldest Princess’ arm. 

“Spirits!” Elsa hears some of the men around her say under their breath, not a swear, but a curse all the same. 

Yelena and the other village leaders walk over to where the giant had fallen. 

“Oh great spirit, we bow before you, burial rights will be performed on this spot where you have fallen and a monument erected in your honor, please pass along in peace and bear us no hatred.” 

“Pitiful humans, one day all of you will feel my pain and suffer as I have suffered,” As the Earth Giant says its final words its body finally crumbles to nothing more than rocks and dust. 

-

Elsa is called to the Elder’s chambers that night. She had been given new clothes to replace the ones destroyed by the demon, but she had been allowed no visitors. The new blue tunic was nearly identical to the one she had lost, with long unattached sleeves and tightly fitted brown pants. But it lacked her family’s crest. She keeps her boots. Her attendant instructs her to burn all of her old clothes. When they go up in flames Elsa tries to not feel any kind of sadness. The chill in her bones hadn’t left nor had it intensified, she doesn’t feel the warmth of the flames at all. She enters the large laavu to see Yelena seated at the dais and the remaining council opposite her. She takes the only remaining seat at the foot of the dais. This dwelling was for meetings only, Elsa had set foot in it exactly once before to testify in a criminal trial. Even with the many torches lining the walls, it lacks warmth of any kind. 

“I’m afraid things are very bad, the stones have told me that the Earth Giant came from far to the North, he had some kind of poison inside of him driving him mad and turning him into a demon,” Elsa watches in rapt fascination as Yelena reads the colorful stones laid out in front of her. “Are you prepared to know your fate, my Princess?”

“I am, I was ready the first time I let my arrow fly,” Elsa had been trained from childhood to protect her people, she hadn’t taken that oath lightly. 

“Show everyone your right arm,” Elsa stands and undoes the sleeve of her garment. Collective gasps fill the room as the mark is exposed. 

“The infection will spread throughout your body, cause you great pain, then kill you.”

“Is there nothing we can do to stop it?” Her father says, trying desperately to hide his rage, “The Princess got that wound by defending our village and saving all of our lives!” 

“That’s enough father,” Elsa says calmly, it would be a great enough disgrace to have a banished daughter, their family would only suffer more if her father continued to speak out against her fate. She doesn’t turn to meet her father’s tear-lidded eyes, that would break her. 

“You cannot alter your fate my Princess, but you may rise to meet it if you so choose,” Yelena pulls out a metal ball the size of of a peach pit from her sleeve, “Look at this, we found this in the body of the Earth Giant, it shattered his stone and drive him mad until he became a demon,” Elsa takes the offending object, it’s heavier than it appears, she feels the ice in her veins curl around it as she moves to pocket it. “There is evil at work in the land far to the north, Princess. Elsa, it is your fate to journey there and see with eyes unclouded by hate, you may find a way to break the curse or you may meet your end. Do you understand?”

“I do.” 

There is a gap in their conversation then. Yelena having said her piece and Elsa remaining quiet out of deference to the elders. There is much more that either of them could say but neither chooses to do so. Yelena had helped raise Elsa and felt the sting of her loss even while they existed in the same space. Elsa knew from the moment that she was called to the elders that this would be the last time she saw any of them. 

“We are the last of the Northuldra people, the last people of Arendelle, we were chased from our homelands years ago and some managed to survive and settle here, now our eldest Princess must shear her hair and leave us forever? Sometimes I feel as if the spirits are laughing at us,” one of the eldest council members mumbles out. The rest don’t acknowledge it even though it rings true. 

“Our laws forbid us from watching you go, Elsa no matter what comes to pass, you are forever dead to us, Farewell,” Yelena’s voice doesn’t crack although Elsa hears the slightest waver in her goodbye, it was more than she was allowed, so she chooses to treasure it. Elsa bows deeply before rising to take the knife laying in front of Yelena. She slices her hair at the base of her braid and leaves it along with the knife on the dais. Elsa exits the laavu, purposefully missing the tearful gaze of her father. 

She heads to the stable to ready Nokk. Saddling up the reindeer and packing her saddlebag with the provisions they had left for her. She dons her traveling cloak and hood and starts to lead Nokk out of Arendelle. The elders had instructed everyone to stay indoors until she left so the streets are utterly empty when she starts off. 

“Elsa!” She hears an all too familiar voice call to her. Anna runs up to her from where she was hiding. 

“Anna, you know that it’s forbidden,” Elsa is resigned now, she knew that it wasn’t allowed but she was grateful to whatever spirits were listening that she got to see her sister once more.

“You think I care about that? I wanted to say goodbye to my sister,” she takes something from her pocket and offers it “Take this with you,” in her hands is pure crystal. The crystal arrowhead had been Anna’s pride and joy when she first found it, Elsa had never been envious of it nor her sister, but it was gorgeous all the same. The dark crystal shines brightly even in the dead of night. 

“Anna, I can’t take this,” Elsa tries to hand the necklace back to her. Elsa makes sure to reach out to her with her non-cursed arm, already knowing that Anna wouldn’t let her refuse.

“Please take it, I want you to have it! So you won’t forget me,” Anna’s hands hold her own, pressing the crystal into her hand like a talisman. Elsa fights to stop the tears from falling, Anna loses the same battle.

“I could never forget you, Anna,” Elsa places the crystal securely around her neck then mounts Nokk. 

“I love you, Elsa,” Anna says, her tears flowing freely. 

“I love you too,” Elsa says before turning away for the last time. She doesn’t spare her sister or her home one final glance. Riding through the gates for the last time Nokk carries her out of the village and away from the only home she’s ever known and the only world she’s ever known. 

-

Even under the hood, her hair feels different. Her cut had been relatively straight and she’s left with a bob of hair that ends just at the bottom of her ears. Her hair had always been unusually light-colored, especially for someone who was half Arendellian and half Northuldra, but now it seemed near-white. She had washed in a stream after crossing it and found the hair in the water lighter than she remembered. The river should be icy this time of year but she doesn’t feel the cold at all. She feels the ice in her veins, in her bones, and assumes the two are connected. She keeps heading north. 

Her entire life had been dedicated to protecting her people from outsiders who would do them harm. Her people, both of her tribes had been driven from neighboring homelands and ostracized anywhere else. Arendelle had become their home out of necessity. The two groups hadn’t agreed with much before the schism but afterward they had no choice. They had managed to eke out a living in an area that could barely support any agriculture. The waters that surrounded them luckily had proved plentiful. Elsa and her sister’s birth had been seen as the beginning of a new era of peace and understanding between the two groups. Just Anna would be now. 

She and Nokk pass through the dense forests that protect Arendelle to craggy and cold mountain ranges. The demon had left a trail of destruction that had been easy to follow until the mountain pass where the trail goes cold. 

Elsa had been taught to fight and hunt and do anything possible and necessary to survive in a world that didn’t want her to exist in it. The words her father had used had never seemed truer than now. She gives little time to thoughts of her family, they were not dead but she was. Missing them would only make her journey harder. Even should she succeed, there was no place for her to return to. 

After the mountains, she comes across lush farmlands and a sprinkling of tiny villages. The people she passes dress and act so differently than her people do. She skirts on the edges of the villages to avoid being seen too much. Though Nokk tends to draw attention to them no matter where they go. 

The next village they come across is on fire. She sees the smoke from the tips of the trees for miles away and only realizes the extent of the blaze when she reaches the outskirts of the village. She exits the trees to see the extent of the damage. Screams of terror fill the air and the smoke carries the sound up. 

“A battle?” She sees a soldier bear down on a helpless woman with his sword, “No, it’s a massacre.” 

The village was burning, soldiers looting the half-burned homes, and villagers running for their lives. She doesn’t dwell too long on the picture of abject horror but she’s spotted all the same. 

“Look! Up on the hill!”

“A warrior!” 

“Good, his head is mine!” Elsa ducks deftly to avoid an arrow aimed at her head. 

“Shit,” Elsa swears under her breath as she urges Nokk into a gallop. One of the soldiers is quick to pursue on horseback. 

“Stop you coward!” 

“Please stay back! I don’t want to fight you!” Elsa calls out in warning, notching an arrow in her own defense. Another arrow shoots past her head and she fires back in retaliation. As she pulls the bow back her arm’s form starts to shift, the mark briefly growing outwards underneath her sleeves. The ice is no longer just in her veins, it surrounds her arm like a shield. Her arrow hits her assailant square in the chest and the wound bursts into an icy spike. The soldier falls off of his horse, dead on impact. “My arm,” Elsa grunts in pain as it feels like her arm was nothing but a block of ice, and her blood was pure snow. She clutches the limb that no longer felt like her own as Nokk carried her through the battlefield. 

“Bastard! You’ll pay for that!” A soldier screams at her as he charges her on foot. 

“Stay back!” She calls as she pulls another arrow from the quiver at her side when the soldier on foot attempts to hack at her with his broadsword, Elsa feels the ice in her arm burn as she lets another arrow loose. It takes the man's arms clean off. They hang lifelessly from the tree that her arrow had pinned them to. Nokk knocks the armless man down easily. 

“Come on Nokk, we need to get out of here,” Elsa urges the horse faster, in the trees they could lose the rest of the soldiers. 

“A Demon,” the last soldier comments as his last comrade’s body hits the ground. 

Far away from the battle, Elsa runs her arm under a small stream. The color has lightened and become more pronounced. Her breath comes out in puffs of frost for long moments after the fight; only once she calms herself does it return to normal. 

“The mark, it’s getting bigger,” the icy blue pox had extended from her forearm up to her wrist. 

-

Elsa travels several more days before she thinks it safe enough to stop and buy supplies. None of the soldiers had been able to follow her into the woods, nor, she assumes, had they wanted to. The mark hadn’t changed again after the battle. 

The town was crowded and Elsa has never seen so many people before. All she needed was some rice and feed for Nokk, evidently, she had picked the wrong day to come. The people around her say that it’s market day, so every farmer and tradesperson is here to sell their goods. Elsa had picked one vendor at random to buy supplies from, if necessary she could make do with just the rice. 

“Will this be enough?” Elsa hands over a small stone. Her people didn’t use money, didn’t see any purpose to it, but the rest of the world seemed to. Still, she had brought the closest thing to money she had with her. 

The merchant takes the stone without looking, only when she doesn’t feel the familiar weight of the coins does she see what she’s been paid in, “This isn’t money, give me my rice back you thief!”

Elsa moves to return the rice when another stranger steps in. Tall and well-dressed, the red-headed man no more belongs in this market than she does. “Excuse me, may I have a look at that?”

“Go ahead,” the merchant says with a huff, the foreigner wasn’t from around here, if they didn’t pay she wouldn’t likely ever see her money. 

“Silly woman, this is a lump of pure gold!” The man holds up the nugget like a true showman, “Now, I’m just a simple man but I’d wager that this is worth at least ten bags of rice, maybe even more,” he waves the nugget around for good measure, “My good people, is there money-changer around? This is an absolute injustice to pay this much for a single bag of rice!” He turns to the merchant, “Of course, if you’d rather have the money I’ll pay for the rice myself and take this off of your hands,” Elsa starts off with her rice before the crowd gets too volatile, slipping through the cracks in the crowd. Hans notices her abscess and tries to follow her, “Hey where are you going, don’t you want your rice?”

“Gimme my gold back!” The merchant snatches the lump out of the man’s hands before he can walk off with it. 

Elsa and Nokk are already a ways out of town by the time that Hans catches up to them. On foot no less. 

“Hello, I’m Prince Hans of the Southern Isles! It’s nice to meet such a warrior as yourself,” he offers his hand though she doesn’t take it, he jogs steadily alongside her, matching Nokk’s pace, “No need to thank me for that, it was my pleasure,” Elsa keeps her pace steady and stays silent, “You’re a man of few words, I understand that I just wanted to say thank you, I was caught up in that village a ways back, I must say you fight like a demon!”

Nokk’s ears pick up and Elsa’s do as well, they’re being followed. A small group of men a distance away from them currently, but still following them closely. 

“Nothing gets past you, they’ll follow us until we fall asleep then slit our throats in the night,” he smiles, bright and cheery despite his words, “Want to show them fast we can run?” Hans bolts off and Elsa signals Nokk to follow. 

-

They camp out in a cave a good distance from the market, the would-be robbers having given up miles ago. 

Elsa doesn’t trust the man but she pulls down the mask on her hood around him anyway. Hans is apologetic about having not recognized her gender earlier but Elsa waves off his placation. 

“I’m the seventh son of my family, so I have to do something rather impressive to have any hope of succeeding my father. That’s why I’m on this journey, to try and find something impressive enough to become King of this land.” Hans is quick to start talking about himself, Elsa learns in short order how the laws of the Southern Isles worked, the names of all of his brothers and their various achievements, and about the King of the Southern Isles himself, Jerrik the Conqueror. 

“The Southern Isles has been steadily expanding past the original isles for decades, someday we’ll own this whole continent,” he takes her bowl and fills it with stew, the steam rising off of the bowl makes her feel warm for the first time in weeks. 

“What of the people that used to live here?” Elsa burns her mouth eating too quickly but the taste is so good that she finds she doesn’t mind. She wonders for a fleeting moment how a prince would learn to cook like that. 

“They’ll assimilate or die out,” he gestures with his fork, “I came here a few years ago, this was a lovely little village, we were getting set to welcome it into the Southern Isles with open arms, then a few months later a landslide came and wiped everyone out,” he pours his own bowl, “Our crusade is mandated by god himself,” he says gesturing grandly around them, at the ruins of a civilization. 

“I fought the demon and followed its trail to the mountains and that’s where I lost it,” it was strange to talk to anyone other than Nokk about her history, it would be forbidden in her homeland but this wasn’t her homeland anymore. It’s almost a relief, it would be more of a relief if Hans were someone she could actually trust. 

“I say that’s life, you win some you lose some, I’ve done my fair share of both,” Hans slurps loudly, “You say you’re cursed? How fascinating, I would have loved to see a demon up close,” Hans takes seconds from the shared pot, “I think the whole world’s cursed if it weren’t there would be an easier way for me to make my father proud of me,” and for the first time Elsa hears the bitterness he must feel all the time seep into his voice. He starts to ready his sleeping roll.

“I shouldn’t have fought in that village, two men are dead because of me,” she had never taken a life before and now she had taken two in short succession. 

“That’s life, we’re all destined to die sometime, some sooner, some later,” Hans waves her concerns off, “My father has promised anyone who can grant him immortality a mountain of gold, not that the old man has a mountain of gold, it’s hard enough for him to get a steady supply of iron,” Hans laughs and Elsa is reminded of something. 

“Have you ever seen anything like this?” Elsa holds up the iron ball and offers it to him. Hans examines it without touching it. 

“No, I can’t say I have.” 

“This was found in the body of the Earth Giant I killed, wherever it came from is where I need to go to next.” 

“There are stories of a great forest spirit further north of here, high in the mountains, if you enter the forest it’s supposed to mean certain death for humans.”

“Forest spirit?”

“Old wives tales say it’s a giant reindeer, the story says that most of the creatures there are giant like they were at the dawn of time, I can’t say I anything to back that up though,” Hans laughs again, the sound isn’t comforting like most laughter Elsa realizes, it was hollow. 

When morning comes Elsa rises early, and packs quickly, leaving before Hans wakes fully. He opens his eyes enough to see her ride off in the early morning light, “Good luck stranger, I’ll see you there.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elsa reaches Iron Town

Runeard considered himself a lucky man. He had gone from almost total obscurity in his youth to ruling the iron trade in his golden years. Iron Town was his life’s work, he had taken the shoddy village he had grown up in and turned it into a thriving town. 

He had been lucky to discover how rich the soil was and how easy it was to turn the ore into iron. He had been lucky to meet the right bastard prince with the right connections at the perfect time. But everything else? That was all skill. 

He had slaughtered the Northuldra and all of the dissenting Arendellians. He and his borrowed arms had crushed any hope of rebellion from the few groups that survived and hadn’t fled. From there out it was easy to stock the town with outsiders from other villagers that were too easily swayed by the offer of freedom. He won the war with the Earth Giants handily, stupid sentitent stone masses didn’t stand a chance against the kind of firepower he had at is disposal. 

Iron Town had only grown since then, they had expanded the city past the small encampments his people had considered a settlement. They built walls to keep their enemies out and a forge to process the iron. The population only grew as more and more people came to see the world how he saw it. 

Mattias was his right hand man, had been for years, since he plucked him from obscurity and poverty, he was several years his junior, not enough to be a son, but just enough to lord the idea of seniority over him. He was too old and too soft to be considered a successor, but Runeard keeps him around for his loyalty. 

They were acting as security for a convoy of oxen transporting the town’s food supply. Their soil was rich in more ways than one but they couldn’t subsist on that alone. Once every few months they’d take a group of men and ox and travel to a nearby town to sell iron, both for supplies and profit. The journey there had been pleasant, the way back they had been met with an early frost. 

The snow wasn’t falling particularly hard, but it slowed the oxen and it was ruining their line of sights if something should attack them. The wolf girl knew their patterns and tried to disrupt their journeys however she could. They were almost home, the narrow mountain pass was always when they were the most vulnerable, and the wolves knew it. He was getting too old to do all the legwork himself. 

“It’s the wolf girl!” One of the sentries calls from their stations, the message quickly ripples throughout the line of oxen and ox-drivers. 

He takes a few precious moments to try and locate the beasts in the snow-covered woods. He sees nothing at first until his eyes manage to catch some movement deep in the trees. The red mask of the wolf girl being the only thing truly visible in the snow. “Ready your positions men! Keep your powder dry and don’t waste your shots!” The riflemen form a phalanx around him and ready their guns. 

“Try and keep the Oxen from panicking!” Mattias calls over the constant braying of the animals. 

The wolves get within shooting range, darting almost imperceptibly through the distant trees, when Runeard calls the shots, “Aim, fire!” The shots miss wildly, splintering a tree and tearing up the ground around where the wolves had been. But the beasts turn around and seem to retreat. 

“That was too easy,” Mattias says dumbly, still holding his flint close to his trigger. 

“They’re just pups, wait until you see their mother,” Runeard barks back at him, “Men, prepare to reload–” 

Screams ripple throughout the far end of the train as a giant wolf tears through the oxen, tossing men and beast alike over the cliff. “It’s Mor!” He exclaims in almost glee as he rips the cover from his musket. “Closer, just a bit closer,” he taunts as the Wolf Spirit picks up ox like they weigh nothing and decimate his men, moving steadily closer into fatal firing range. The beast meets his eyes as she tears apart another one of his men and Runeard finally lights his flint. 

The bullet hits Mor in the right side of the breast. Mattias’ shoots out a small blaze of gunpowder and sparks that disorients the monster right off the edge of the cliff. The giant white wolf falling far out of their sights in seconds.

“Did we kill her?” Mattias spends too much time looking over the cliff, as if he were expecting the beast to scale the sheer cliff and bite him in spite. 

“You forget, she’s a Spirit, it’ll take more than that,” he dismisses the idea quickly. 

“She certainly did enough damage,” Mattias laments as the snow keeps falling on their momentary battlefield. The men that hadn’t been thrown over the cliff were all in various states of shock or stupor. They had probably lost anywhere between a third and half of their supplies and just as many oxen. 

“Let’s regroup and get ready to move out,” Runeard doesn’t spare another moment looking over the edge, turning to what was left of the ox and livestock. 

“What about the men who fell over the cliff?” Mattias asks, too soft indeed. 

“They’re dead, let’s get the living home.” 

-

After leaving Hans in the ruins of that old village, Elsa keeps traveling North through more woods. She feels the ache of the cold in her bones every moment that she’s awake. The leaves had started to fall with greater urgency the further north she went, only hastened by the downpour that turned to snow from the day before. 

She’s leading Nokk through a section of thick underbrush when they come upon a rushing river. Perhaps, if not for the rain, it would be fordable. The treacherous waters carry body after body down the river, both oxen and human. 

“What do you think happened?” She asks Nokk, the Reindeer only sniffing the air suspiciously in response. He wasn’t worried, whatever danger that had caused this had long since passed. They walk closer to the rushing waters, Nokk may have been able to make the jump but she didn’t want to risk it. 

There’s a ringing in her ears that only lessens when she pulls a body from the waters. The man had been lucky, the tides having sent him to a small alcove protected from the rest of the waters. She places her palm over his mouth and finds him breathing. She peels off her traveling cloak to try and dry the man off. 

The same feeling plagues her, leads her to another man, wedged between two rocks out in the river, also alive. His leg is broken but not extensively, so makes quick work of a splint and does the same to his arm. The other man she can’t help.

The sense, the ringing, calls her to another part of the river bank. A felled tree covers her position as she watches the scene unfold. 

A girl appears riding a large white wolf, a second soon follows. 

Elsa watches the large mass of white wake and reveals itself as a giant wolf. The girl rushes up to the massive soul, noticing the wound at its breast, starts to suck the blood out of the wound. It leaves her face bloody and the girl makes a poor attempt at wiping the blood off, only smearing it further. 

Struck by a sudden boldness, Elsa climbs to the top of the rocks adjacent to the rushing waters. 

“My name is Elsa, I’ve traveled far from lands to the south, are you one of the great spirits and have I finally come to the realm of the forest spirit?” Elsa projects her voice across the river, hoping to be heard over the icy waters. 

The largest wolf growls at her before turning and heading into the forest. 

“Go away,” the girl yells back at her, and Elsa feels her face burn for the first time. The girl and the other wolves depart back into the forest and out of sight. She stands frozen, compelled to stay in that spot by the mere sight of them. Utterly moonstruck. 

She’s only shaken out of her revere by a scream so loud that it scares the birds off. Knowing that it’s coming from where she left Nokk in charge of those men she rushes back to them. 

“Get off of me!” The man with the splinted arm and leg screams, desperately trying to crawl away from the tiny white creatures with his two intact limbs. Elsa would find it funny if not for the risk he ran of hurting himself further. 

Snøånd, she had never seen one in person before. Her people had told stories of the small creatures, tiny and mischievous but a sign of a healthy forest and a hearty winter to come. 

“What are you so afraid of? They’re winter spirits, they mean us no harm,” one of the sprites appears to almost smile at her comment. 

“‘They’ll lead their lord and master right to us!” The man shuts his eyes as the creatures seem to multiply before their eyes. 

“Do you mean those wolves I just saw?”

The man doesn’t seem to totally register what she’s said but continues on anyway, “It’s like a giant reindeer, only sometimes they say it has the face of a human and ah!” He cuts himself off mid-sentence, “Reinforcements!” True to his word, more snow spirits arrive, a few even being so bold as to sit atop Nokk. 

“If Nokk isn’t afraid we have nothing to fear,” Elsa bends down to face one of the snow creatures, “Will you grant us passage through your forest little one?” The small snow creature bounces up and down on its wobbly legs before fading into nothing. Elsa assumes that this is a good sign. 

“My name is Flynn, Flynn Rider” he smiles and even with the broken limbs Elsa thinks that he means to be charming. He would be succeeding if she cared for such things. She doesn’t give her name in return. 

She helps Flynn, onto Nokk and shoulders the unconscious man herself. 

They have no choice but to go through the woods. The sooner they started the better chances they had of everyone surviving. The Snøånd seem to follow them as they climb the dense roots and stones underneath the towering trees, all jogging along like they are the most interesting thing they’ve ever seen. It’s the largest forest that Elsa’s ever seen, and by far the most beautiful. 

“Sir, there’s a lovely little train on the other side of the river, I think I’ve mentioned it before but this forest is not meant for humans, it's full of spirits and demons.” She supposes to an outsider that she might look more masculine, her voice was lower but not low, and her clothing was likely more confusing than feminine. She doesn’t bother correcting him either way, it was the least of her worries at this point. 

“We don’t have a choice, the current’s too strong for us to cross and your friend is badly injured, he won’t make it if we wait too long,” Elsa replies, her breath turning to frost at the exertion of carrying a man uphill. A Snøånd passes her by carrying another Snøånd, they’re having a much better time of it than she is. She catches her frozen breath and keeps going.

At the top of the hill they had been climbing they came to a large lake, the water crystal clear and the seasons seeming to stand still. The onset of winter having stopped completely, the oasis was frozen in spring. Flowers bloomed along the shores and a warm gentle breeze wafted across the lake. The patches of sunlight that make it through the trees are clear and bright, warming in an indescribable way. 

“Miss,” Flynn corrects himself this time, “We especially shouldn't be here, this is sacred grounds,” Elsa can agree with that, the very air felt different than the rest of the forest, but spirits and humans were never meant to be enemies, no matter how they had 

“I just need a quick rest,” she takes her bowl from the knapsack and moves to fill it with water from the lake. She glances towards the source of the light, and finds something that is distinctly not the sun. Even from this distance the creature’s antlers are magnificent. What must be hundreds of individual points stretch towards the trees like blooming daisies. It turns and Elsa meets a too-human face. Her arm seizes, losing its form for a moment, like when she killed those soldiers. She grips it hard with her other arm, trying to calm the arm. The bowl shakes and she loses most of the water she collected, her grip freezing the rim. 

She plunges her arms into the lake to try and stop the movements. Tries to stop the ice in her veins and the frost on her breath. She closes her eyes for several deep breaths. The ice on the bowl melts. 

“Are you alright? You turned white as a sheet for a moment there,” Elsa feels the warmth of the sunlight hit her and her breath turns back to just air. 

“I’m fine, it shouldn’t be much further,” she pulls her arms from the water and refills the bowl. Bending down to give the other man some water, he mumbles something incomprehensible but manages to sip the water. When she remembers to look again the creature is gone, its strange wide-set human eyes no longer upon her. They continue on. 

“That’s strange, he suddenly doesn’t feel heavy at all,” Elsa comments as they appear to reach the edge of the forest. The man she had been carrying for miles seemed to weigh nothing at all, like her burden had been lifted completely. 

“My arm, it’s healed!” Flynn yells with a triumphant fist pump, lifting his arm out of the sling she had made, “Ahhouch! No, it’s still broken,” he yells not a moment later, gently setting the limb back down. Elsa lets out a giggle and Nokk snickers at him, and he pouts until they reach the edge of the forest. 

“We made it! Spirits, we made it!” The forest lets them out right on the edge of a large lake, that isn’t the home that Flynn is referring to though. 

“It’s a fortress,” Elsa notes the dark plumes of smoke rising up from the buildings. The island, manmade or natural, had been turned into a fortress with tall walls of wood and spikes protecting the beach surrounding it. For a moment she wonders what it would have looked like otherwise. 

“It’s Lord Runeard’s Iron Town, we pull the ore from the sand to make iron,” he says giddily, obviously excited to have made it home. 

“Lord Runeard? Is he a king?”

“No, but he rules Iron Town like one, we’ve managed to hold off the Southern Isles for years and they still come to us to buy their iron!” He laughs as he notices a boat on the edge of the lake. Waving wildly with his good arm he calls out to them, “It’s me! Flynn Rider!” He continues to call out to them as they move closer to the edge of the water. Once they’re close enough Elsa can see how the boatmen look like they’ve seen a ghost. 

They help her load Flynn and the other man into the raft and Nokk follows them across the water. The closer they get to Iron Town the sheer magnitude of the walls only grows. There’s a lingering scent of burned air and sweat on the breeze and the black cloud of smoke only grows bigger. This must be the place. 

By the time they reach the other side of the lake a small crowd has gathered. They swarm the boat before they can even beach the boat properly. 

“Flynn, you’re really alive!”

“Is my son with you?”

“No, I’m afraid we’re the only ones that made it back,” Flynn says, suddenly very somber. He’s helped up and out of the boat by his entourage. Elsa steps out of the way so that another group can transport the other man. “Please, everyone, this woman saved me and brought me back home, you should be grateful to her!” Flynn calls out as he’s carried up onto the beach. “Hey! Watch the arm!” 

Elsa steps out of the boat then, and Nokk joins her on the shore, shaking his fur dry. The villagers give them a wide berth. 

The only one who dares approach her is a tall dark man, older than her father by a number that escapes her. He wears a uniform that Elsa assumes denotes authority. Flynn and the other man’s clothes seemed very casual now in comparison. 

“Hello, I’m lieutenant Mattias, thank you for bringing those men back to us,” he offers a slight bow, Elsa only nods in response. He sounds like he’s going to continue but a shout interrupts him. 

“Flynn! Flynn!” A woman’s voice calls from the top of the steps, she rushes down the steps and nearly plows down the men carrying Flynn. 

“Rapunzel!” He cries out in pure adoration. She stops short of embracing him. 

“Great. How’re you going to drive the oxen now? You scared me half to death!” 

“I’m sorry blondie-”

“Don’t call me that, you know I’m mad at you,” she takes a deep breath and turns to Elsa, “Thanks for bringing my husband back to me, he’s a handful but I love him.” 

“Oh good, I was starting to think that I had done something wrong by bringing him back home,” Elsa chuckles and smiles beneath the mask. 

The woman, Rapunzel, Elsa thinks, bursts out in a deep belly laugh right along with her, her long blonde hair whipping around her face wildly. “Hey, I bet if you take that mask off you’re pretty handsome,” she prods and Elsa feels her face flush. 

“Mattias,” another voice calls from the top of the stairs, “Bring the stranger to my quarters, I would like to speak with them personally later,” this man is old enough to be her grandfather, with weathered white hair and broad shoulders. His uniform makes Mattias look outclassed. His face is not friendly nor his tone inviting. This was hardly an invitation, it was an order. Elsa feels the ice in her veins sing in anticipation. 

“Of course sir,” Mattias says quickly. 

Elsa pulls her mask down, lost for a moment. 

Rapunzel squeals, and for the first time in months, she can’t stop the thoughts of her sister from flooding her mind. She doesn’t process the words that come out initial but when she does she can’t help but flush again. “You’re not handsome, you’re gorgeous!” 

-

The men invite her to dine with them, she’s not entirely sure why, but she accepts to avoid being rude. The sun had set soon after they arrived in Iron Town, the gates had been closed to great fanfare and dinner dished out. They had retreated to the men’s eating areas for dinner. The architecture was far different than back home. All wooded and walled structures rather than the light hide-walls of the laavu’s she’s used to. Even the open-aired dining room area was made of large, untreated trees with a heavy thatched roof. 

“Who would’ve thought such a pretty young woman was underneath all of that,” one of the men pats her on the shoulder in a way that Elsa’s sure is supposed to be friendly, the alcohol on his breath makes the gesture lacking. 

“With the way that Flynn talked about you I thought you’d be as strong as big as an ox!” Another chimes in. 

“I’m sorry I’m not what you were expecting,” Elsa says plainly as the men erupt in laughter. Distinct from the sound are the women’s voices that carry from the window, a group had followed her here, and grown steadily since. 

“Rapunzel’s right, she is pretty,” they gossip from the window. 

“But she’s so young!” 

“That hasn’t stopped you before!” 

“Hey! We lost some good men today! Show some respect!” The man next to her yells back at them. 

“There’s lots of good looking men in here,” Another taunts, half joking, half not. 

“I’ve seen cattle that look better,” Elsa can’t help but laugh at this. 

“Hey, stranger, you don’t want to sleep with these pigs, come by our place!” One girl calls out. 

“I would like to see where you all work, if that’s all right,” Elsa smiles and watches a few of the girls melt. 

“Really?” 

“Don’t keep us waiting!” One calls out as they all hurry off. 

“You shouldn’t encourage them.” 

“They say that happy women make a happy village,” that had been a proverb even back home. 

“They’re spoiled rotten here, Mattias thought to stock the forge with nothing but brothel girls and Lord Runeard went along with it, they defile the iron,” he laughs heartily through his bowl of rice. 

“Mattias just has a kind heart,” an old man calls from across the fire. 

“He might but Lord Runeard doesn’t, otherwise how would he have killed Njal?”

“Who’s Njal?” Elsa asks, her ears perking up. 

“Njal? He was the Earth Giant that ruled this forest for years!”

“Before Lord Runeard came, this area was inhabited by nothing but spirits and savages, Lord Runeard came in and got rid of both,” the men go around the firepit telling the history of their town. 

“He built this forge and recruited all of us from poverty and prisons to work and live here.”

“He and his riflemen leveled the area.”

“What about the people that used to live here?” Elsa manages to ask without betraying the bile building up in her throat. 

“Gone, long gone,” someone answers simply and Elsa feels sick. 

The stories continue on as Elsa’s mind is overtaken with the thoughts of the burning of what might have been her homeland. All for iron. She clutches her cursed arm tightly. 

“Is your arm hurting you miss?”

“No,” Elsa lies as she feels the mark on arm burns, “I’m just thinking about how Njal must have died full of rage and hate.”

-

Mattias comes to the men’s quarters to collect her after dinner. He leads her down a row of neatly made houses to where Runeard is resting comfortably in a chair, overseeing others counting and tallying iron. 

“Some of my people think you’re either a spy for the wolves or an agent of the Southern Isles, neither of those things seem to quite suit you though,” he doesn’t look up at her, “Where are you from girl?”

“A land far to the south, I can’t tell you any more than that.” 

“So, why are you here?”

“I think you’ll recognize this,” Elsa pulls the iron ball from the pouch on her waist, “It was found in the body of an Earth Giant, far to the south of here, I killed it and for that I was cursed with this mark on my arm,” Elsa quickly undoes the sleeve of her shirt to expose the icy blue marks. Runeard doesn’t react but Mattias lets out a noticeable gasp. 

“And what do you want with me? Why have you come here?”

“To see with eyes unclouded by hate.”

“Eyes unclouded?” The old man lets out a deep belly-laugh that startles her for a moment, he gets up from his perch and springs from his throne with more agility than a man his age should have. “Come, follow me to my garden, I’ll tell you all my secrets.”

“Is that wise sir?” Matthias tries to protest.

“Take over for me Mattias,” he waves his lieutenant off and guides Elsa to the edge of the town. They enter an area walled off from the rest of the walled city. It’s lush and green in a way that is familiar but not. 

“This is my personal garden, none of the townspeople dare enter it,” like what he said earlier it’s not a comment, it’s an ongoing threat. 

The leaves were distinctive, two-toned that left a bitter scent in the air, as were the flowers that would bloom on them in the spring. Elsa recognizes the plants, she realizes belatedly, they were traditional Arendellian plants. The same ones her mother and sister had too often folded into medicine or stews. The same ones that her family had likely burned after her banishment. 

He notices her stop to study the plants, “You have a good eye, I can’t bring myself to get rid of these wretched things,” he prattles, “As a boy I tended to these things like they were my lifeline, now all they do is remind me of times gone by.” 

The plants are meticulously cared for, though Elsa doubts that Runeard lifts a finger to do any of the care these days. 

“When I first came to this land it was inhabited by nothing but spirits and savages, the soil was rich and the natives were all too eager to let outsiders in.”

The story sounds all too familiar to Elsa. “You slaughtered them,” her tone turns icy along with her breath. 

“I brought riflemen and civility here, if they didn’t like it they were free to leave at any point,” Elsa feels the ice gather in her bones, he waves her off.

“You took land that didn’t belong to you and that wasn’t even enough for you?” 

“I was born here girl, don’t forget that, this is my homeland much more than it is yours, I saw an opportunity that everyone else had neglected, and I took it, I am no ashamed of that,” he motions one of the men lingering outside the house to bring him something, he returns with a rifle. “This is the latest rifle that I’m having these people develop, it's strong enough to decimate the Southern Isles and kill a Spirit.” 

“First you killed the Giant and burned his forest, now you’re making even deadlier weapons to kill even more people, when will this end?” 

“I’ll admit, I’m the one that shot that stupid Giant, but your curse has nothing to do with me,” he scoffs at her plight, like he had scoffed at his own people half a century ago, “Stay here, work for me and help me kill the forest spirit, they say that the blood of the forest spirit can heal any ailment, maybe even lift your curse. With the forest spirit gone, what’s left of the Earth Giants will be nothing but piles of stone, this will become the richest land on earth, and Princess Mononoke will become human.”

“Princess Mononoke?” Her mind flashes back to the girl she had seen that morning by the riverside. She feels the ice in her soul sing at the mention of the name. 

“Princess of beasts and Spirits alike, a wolf stole her soul and now she lives to kill me, I’d like to see the bitch try.” 

The ice in her veins erupts in rage and reaches for the sword at her side. She has to fight herself and her curse to not slaughter him then and there. It would be fair and just for her to kill him then and there. 

“Does that arm of yours wish to kill me?” He smiles, coldly, maliciously, almost laughing. 

“If it would lift the curse I would let it tear you to shreds, but that wouldn’t solve anything would it?” If she killed him it wouldn’t change anything, it might make her feel better for a moment but that wouldn’t end the cycle of hatred that had started long before she was born. 

“You’d have to kill everyone to be at peace, and I don’t think you have it in you,” he walks into the house and her arm relaxes. Tearing some of the leaves off of his plants before she goes. 

-

She doesn’t have a destination in mind when she leaves the gardens. She didn’t know her way around the town and she needed to calm the rage frozen in her veins. She’s too angry and anxious to ask for real directions so she wanders in circles for hours. The rage in her veins finally melts. 

On what must be her tenth loop of the city she takes a right where she had previously taken a left and finds herself at the foot of the forge. Remembering her promise she peeks her head in. 

“I was wondering if you would show up,” Rapunzel calls as she glances into the forge, her long blonde hair plaited back in an intricate braid. Elsa almost misses her hair then. 

“I was lost,” Elsa apologizes, walking further into the forge to greet everyone. She had never been deeply involved with the other women of her village. Her father had always brought her along on his own chores, he had taught both her and Anna how to hunt and defend themselves but Anna had taken more to socializing than she had. The women swarm her with questions and she answers the ones that she can. 

She walks over to one of the women working the bellows, “May I try?” Rapunzel nods when the girl shoots her a nervous glance. She presses down on the bellow and lifts the girls on the other side right off the ground. They squeal with glee. Her strength had changed since the curse, she had always been strong but now she was almost super human. 

“I’m impressed, but there’s no way you can keep that pace up for long,” Rapunzel chuckles at her antics. 

“You all must live hard lives,” she says in between pumps. 

“Maybe, but it’s better than where we came from,” Rapunzel admits, “A lot of us are from bad places and bad situations, and at least here we get to make those decisions ourselves now!” She and the over girls laugh but Elsa knows that it must have been hard. This was their home too, even if the land had been stolen they hadn’t been the ones to do it. There wasn’t an easy solution for any of them. 

“Are you really going to leave tomorrow?” The ladies crowd around her as she moves to leave. 

“You can stay with us and work here!” 

“I’m sorry, but there’s someone I need to find out in the forest,” something in her ice bones told her that she needed to find the Princess. Alarms start to ring around the town. “She’s here,” she says aloud under her breath as calls from the sentries about the wolf girl ring out around them. 

-

As the alarms ring out, loud deep horns that shake the very ground, Elsa tries to find where the wolf girl has gone. Climbing to the rooftops to try and get a better vantage point, she tries to map out the town she had wandered earlier. She sees a speck of white against the forge’s tall silhouette. From her position she can see the forge and the crowd gathering in the square. 

“Princess of beasts and demons, if you can hear me come out,” Runeard calls from the square, “You want revenge for all the animals I’ve killed, I’ve got some women who would also like revenge,” he motions to the crowd and two women armed with the new rifles come forward. “These women also want revenge, for husbands killed by your wolves.”

“Come out you little bitch, my husband’s dead because of you,” one of the women shouts defiantly. The other is quiet, nervous.

Elsa notices movement on the adjacent roofs, “It’s a trap,” she says quickly, watching as the riflemen take their positions, hidden from view from the forge, but well within striking distance. A strong breeze ruffles the white fur that surrounds her body like a halo. 

“Please don’t throw your life away!” Elsa shouts as the Princess readies her weapon, “It’s a trap! Go back to the forest!” 

“Should I stop her?” Mattias asks slowly. 

“Leave her be, the spirits themselves couldn’t stop her now,” Runeard tightens his grip on the blade at his side. 

Twin wolves howls cry out in the distance as she charges down the roof of the forge. Twin blasts knock her off her feet and she tumbles from the roof to the ground. 

“Take aim where she lands,” Runeard commands. The girl falls from the roof onto unsteady feet, blade still in hand but the grip loose. He lets her sway for a moment before commanding,“Fire.” 

One of the blasts misses, shooting hole in the wall adjacent to where she stood, the other shatters the red clay mask covering her face. She cumples to the ground, bloodless. Runeard lets his face quirk into a smirk. The townspeople erupt into a cheer. 

“Stay back!” She tries to yell over the crowd as she rushes to get to the scene before they do, but she was too far away to reach the other girl before they did. The entire village was armed to the teeth, every woman and man having been given something to defend Iron Town. Elsa feels the ice in her blood and finally knows what she can do. “I said stay back!” She warns as she lets the ice trapped in her body out for a moment. A blast of pure winter shoots from her hand to the corridor, freezing the ground and the walls and causing the men leading the charge to crash to the ground. It gives her enough time to jump down from the roof. 

“Wake up,” she shakes the other girl more than lightly by her shoulders, “Come on, wake up,” as if on command blue meets honey-brown and then a bone-blade meets her cheek. 

Elsa manages to dodge enough that the wound isn’t too deep but it's far from superficial. She pulls her own blade from her waist to parry the strikes lodged at her. “I don’t want to fight! I’m a friend,” her words do nothing to stop the assault. The other girl eventually shoving past her, using the fallen men as stepping stones over the ice and using another’s spear as a vaulting pole over the crowd and right into the square. Her blade immediately clashing with Runeard’s. 

Elsa stands slowly, hearing the unmistakable sound of a fight, the ice in her blood and in her veins runs freely. She walks over the frozen ground and feels the ice melt beneath her feet. Mattias meets her on the other side with his rifle in hand. “Stand down Mattias, this is not your fight,” as she passes by her cursed arm freezes the muzzle of his gun, he drops it in shock. 

Her body is completely cold as she pushes through the crowd with ease, entering the ring in moments. The fight is mismatched, both in strength and style. Runeard’s age and agility unable to completely overpower the wolf girl’s unpredictability and viciousness. Elsa waits for a break then strikes; wrapping the girl’s wrist in the vice grip and blocking the old man’s sword with her own. 

“Stay your hand, the girl’s life is now mine,” Elsa refuses to yield with her sword, pushing back with all her human strength. Her breath pure frost. 

“I’m sure she’ll make a lovely bride for you,” he mocks, but fails to overpower her blade. The girl bites and tears into her arm but she doesn’t let go. 

“There’s a demon growing inside both of you,” Frost coats her eyelashes and soon covers her cursed arm. The tearing in her arm quickly turns frantic as the girl tries to get away from the frost that threatens to coat her own skin. “Look everyone! This is what hatred looks like, this is what happens when it catches hold of you!” 

“You’re quite a show, but I’m getting sick of all of your pontifications, why don’t I just cut the damn thing off?” His free hand produces a knife from nowhere and aims for her arm. 

Elsa sees the knife and slams the butt of her sword into his gut, knocking him out before his blade can reach her. She knees the wolf girl in the stomach and she’s out as well. 

“Someone take him from me,” a few villagers put down their weapons and take the unconscious man from her arms. “He’ll be fine, he’s just stunned,” letting them kill each other wouldn’t have solved anything, just beget more hatred for everyone involved. There had to be something else. “I’m leaving and I’m taking the wolf girl,” she says, lifting the girl onto her shoulders. 

“No you're not! How dare you hurt Lord Runeard!” Elsa stares down the barrel of the gun, aimed at her by the quieter of the two women earlier. 

She doesn’t respond to the threat. She turns around with the wolf girl on her shoulders and starts to walk towards the exit. 

“Move and I fire!” They warn, though Elsa pays them no mind. She had never seen a rifle before Iron Town and would likely not see many more if she left. A shot rings out.

The bullet cuts through her like a knife through fresh butter, but she doesn’t feel any of the pain, instead she keeps moving. 

Elsa walks the path to the entrance, blood trailing behind her the whole way. Nokk joined her along the way, whining in worry but following her lead. After what could have been minutes or hours they reach the front gates, the crowd parts to allow her access to the closed gate. 

“The gate’s been ordered closed, we can’t open it for you or anyone,” Mattias whispers low even though the crowd that had regrouped around them was still stunned to silence. He had followed her to the gate with his own rifle. He was supposed to stop her but there was little he was willing to do about a walking corpse. 

“We’re very grateful that you brought those men back to us, we don’t want to hurt you,” he and the other guard cross their rifles over the gate. 

“I walked in this door earlier today and I will leave the same way,” she says simply, pressing her hand to the gate between crossed rifles. She presses forward. The gate doesn’t budge but her wound bleeds out in protest. 

“Stop it! You’ll kill yourself!” Mattias yells at her. 

Elsa continues pressing, feeling the sensation of the blood leave her body but not the feeling. The gate starts to lift, eventually opening up enough for them to leave. Two white wolves rush the open gates but don’t attempt to enter it, growling from a safe distance. 

“I have your princess, don’t worry, she’s fine!” She calls out to the waiting wolves, “Come on Nokk,” the reindeer bowing its head to fit under the gate. She turns back for only a moment, “Thank you for everything,” are the only words heard as the gate slams back to the ground as she lets go. 


End file.
